Culture of Peace in Political Parties to Strengthen the National Reconciliation Process: Case Studies of Democrat Party and Phue Thai Party

Abstract

The research article “ Cultures of Peace in Political Parties for the Reconciliation Process in Thailand” consists of three objectives: 1) to look for the culture of peace in the Thai political parties, specifically Democratic Party and Pheu Thai Party; 2) to explore the Thai political parties’ implementations to achieve the reconciliation process based on the peace culture, and 3) to provide the guidelines on the policy of the culture of peace for solving political and administrative issues in Thailand. The research is conducted with a mixed method, the combination of quantity and quality research methodology. The quantitative and qualitative results are analyzed. The subjects of the research include the politicians who are the members of the political parties, the regional leaders of the political parties, academics, and the public. The analysis leads to these following results according to the three objectives: 1) both Thai political parties own the different forms of the peace cultures; 2) the peace culture of each Thai political party is the important factor in driving the party policy and obtaining electoral votes; and 3) the guidelines are to be applied to the party policies. Although both political parties own different political ideologies and practices, the indicators of their peace cultures can be reflected through the process of coexistence between them. Their differences may lead to conflicts of interests and probably result in the solutions for political conflicts in Thailand. A political party’s policies should aim to promote the peace culture and quality democracy while valuing human dignity and people’s needs.